I. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to antennae structures, and more particularly to embedded and/or integrated antennae structures on multilayer organic and inorganic substrates for use in compact systems and subsystems such as laptops and hand held wireless applications.
II. Related Art
There are at least three major challenges for antenna design associated with wireless integration into portable handheld, mobile and laptop applications. First, many of these applications are very densely packed electronic devices, and leave very little room for additional functions. Second, FCC emission requirements have forced laptop manufacturers and other portable electronics suppliers to make extensive use of conducting materials in the covers of the laptops or conducting shields to minimize radiation from today's very high-speed processors. Thus, it is difficult to place an antenna in an environment free enough of other conductors to create an efficient radiator. Third, the size, shape, and location of the antenna may be affected by other design constraints such as the mechanical and industrial design. Therefore, it is currently necessary to make engineering tradeoffs between the design, performance, and placement of the antenna on the one hand (given the industrial and mechanical design) versus the size of the system or subsystem on the other.
As an example, early results based strictly on analytical modeling, blind cut-and-try, or the use of “integratable” vendor solutions yielded an integrated Bluetooth antenna solution incapable of reliable connectivity much beyond 1-3 meters, which was not even close to the advertised Bluetooth specification of 10 meters. Surprisingly, vendor solutions that touted fully integrated design capability for Bluetooth appeared to be using measurements of freestanding antennas. Once integrated with the odd ground planes and cabling of a real system, the antennas fell far short of advertised performance. Selling an integrated system solution that falls short of user expectations creates disappointment and dissatisfaction in the marketplace and therefore jeopardizes broad acceptance of wireless technology.